U.S. News & World Report magazine invites several experts from heart diseases, diabetes, nutrition, obesity and food psychology to review and rank dozens of diets each year. Among them, the Mediterranean diet has been ranked as the “Best Diet” for five consecutive years and in 2022 was ranked first in several categories, including:
- best diet overall
- Best Plant-Based Diet
- best heart-healthy diet
- best diabetes diet
- best diet for healthy eating
- easiest diet to follow
Numerous studies have proven that following the Mediterranean diet can help reduce weight, protect heart and brain health, and prevent cancer, diabetes and chronic diseases.
However, adopting a Mediterranean diet does not mean that you can get these benefits directly. It also depends on how you do it.
There are four keys to the Mediterranean diet:
- Eating lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and olive oil, and cooking with herbs and spices in the right amounts
- Eating fish, seafood, poultry, dairy products and eggs in moderation (ie low to moderate consumption).
- reducing the intake of sweets and red meat
- can drink a little red wine according to personal preference
However, due to some misconceptions, using the Mediterranean diet incorrectly can be harmful to our health. What common mistakes should be avoided, and how can we follow the Mediterranean diet the right way?
Mistake 1: Overdoing it with Vegetables
“The Mediterranean diet can be a balanced diet with a variety of foods, but many people ignore the word ‘balance’ and neglect the proportion and quantity of food,” said nutritionist Jiahui Li. She smiled, adding that people might have trouble hearing “balanced diet” all the time, but that’s the “basics of everything.”
For example, the United States government recommends adults eat at least two to three cups of vegetables a day to replenish fiber and various nutrients. Although there is no upper limit to the recommended daily vegetable intake, that doesn’t mean that eating too many won’t make people feel uncomfortable.
Since vegetables contain a lot of indigestible dietary fiber, consuming too much can cause symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain and flatulence.
Dietary fiber promotes gastrointestinal motility and also increases gas excretion, which can cause flatulence when dietary fiber is consumed in large amounts.
Certain vegetables are particularly prone to gas formation and should be consumed in moderation. These include onions, garlic, leeks, cabbage, broccoli, snow peas, peas and asparagus.
In addition, vegetables often contain the mineral potassium, some at very high levels. Patients with chronic kidney disease need to limit potassium intake, so they need to be careful about the choice of vegetables. This does not mean that they cannot adopt a Mediterranean diet, only that it requires extra vigilance regarding their potassium intake.
The medical journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation actually published a review that listed the Mediterranean diet as the preferred diet for patients with chronic kidney disease. In the article, the Mediterranean diet was said to be able to reduce the risk of chronic kidney disease and the risk of end-stage kidney disease by 16 percent, thus improving patient survival.
Patients with chronic kidney disease can choose low-potassium vegetables and fruits, such as broccoli sprouts, tassel gourds, white-flowered gourds, wood-eared mushrooms, white radishes, purple onions, wax apples, watermelon and apples. Or, when vegetables are cooked, they may reduce the concentration of potassium and cause soup not to drink.
Mistake 2: Straight Olive Oil
The Mediterranean diet does not abstain from fats or oils, but they should be healthy, such as extra virgin olive oil, macadamia nut oil and avocado oil. And while adding these oils to the diet, we still need to focus on the quantity. Even for healthy oils, excessive intake will burden our body.
The recommended daily intake of lipids and oils is 3 to 8 tablespoons (1 tablespoon is 15cc).
People who eat a Mediterranean diet are usually accustomed to using olive oil. Lee said that people all know that olive oil is good for our health, but I have heard of people drinking it straight. The reason for this is related to the myth that olive oil does not tolerate high temperatures and the nutrients present in it are destroyed when the oil is heated.
In fact, there has been no research to support the claim that olive oil is more beneficial than it used in cooking. Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, tried a one-week olive oil regimen that included scientific experiments and drinking olive oil for his book. As a result, he experienced nausea and dizziness and subsequently abandoned the experiment.
Lee pointed out that some people drink olive oil for health benefits, and then they also use the oil when they cook, so they consume too much oil, which will burden their body. Hence, it is advisable to include the oil in food instead of drinking it directly.
The smoke point of olive oil, which is the temperature that will destroy its nutrition, is around 190 degrees. The cooking temperature is usually not that high, so we can safely use olive oil as a cooking oil. In addition, a recent study from Spain shows that minor components of extra virgin olive oil inhibit fatty acid and vitamin oxidation during cooking.
In addition to olive oil, Lee suggests alternatively using a variety of edible oils that are rich in unsaturated fatty acids, such as olive oil.
When choosing cooking oil, many people will buy olive oil in transparent glass bottles or plastic containers, which are cheaper. In fact, it is best to store olive oil in dark colored glass bottles, as such bottles protect the oil from light to prevent rapid oxidation. In addition, the use of plastic containers and cans is a concern due to the release of plasticizers.
The oxidation process of oils and greases will produce lipid peroxide, which is quite unstable and will continue to decompose and produce more and more free radicals in the process of oxidation and degradation of oils and greases. Free radicals are destabilizing factors that can damage cells and cause aging and many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cataracts and cancer.
Some may also choose to have larger containers of cheaper blended oil for financial reasons. This type of cooking oil, which blends different vegetable oils in varying proportions, also contains high unsaturated fatty acids, but large containers of oil are prone to oxidation and spoilage if they are not used quickly. are done. So, if you have a lot of family members who cook frequently, you can opt for blended oils, but you’ll need to eliminate them quickly.
Mistake 3: Red Wine
One of the features of the Mediterranean diet is the consumption of a glass of red wine at a meal. The health benefits of red wine are thought to be related to resveratrol, a polyphenol.
However, academics promoting the Mediterranean diet do not necessarily recommend people drink alcohol because of the alcohol content.
Dr. Chih Hao Lin, a neurologist and director of the Brain Stroke Center at Lin Xin Hospital in Taiwan, is against people drinking red wine or other alcoholic beverages. He told that after analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of drinking alcohol, it is found that alcohol does not benefit the body much and the quality of sleep also decreases.
Drinking too much alcohol can lead to fatty liver and damage to the brain. One study found that alcohol causes atrophy of the hippocampus, which is primarily responsible for memory and spatial orientation navigation.
Once alcohol reaches the liver, it turns into a carcinogen, which increases the risk of many cancers. In 2020, more than 740,000 of all new cancer cases worldwide were attributable to alcohol consumption, of which approximately 100,000 were due to light and moderate alcohol consumption.
So is it okay to drink a small amount of alcohol? The Lancet, a top international medical journal, gave us the answer: After a systematic review of alcohol consumption and its health effects in 195 countries from 1990 to 2016, it was found that the safe consumption of alcohol is 0.
Lee said that people who initially do not drink alcohol should not start drinking red wine when they adopt a Mediterranean diet. Or, they can be cooked with red wine, as in making a beef bourguignon. However, although the alcohol content decreases with cooking time, even after prolonged cooking, such as two and a half hours, there will still be 5 percent alcohol remaining in the dish.
If you want to supplement resveratrol, you can eat only dark purple or dark red grapes or blueberries, or even have a glass of grapefruit juice.
Mistake 4: Timing and Amount of Fruit Consumption
Many people have the misconception that fresh-tasting fruits are low in calories, so they consume them in abundance. Lee reminded us that we should pay special attention to the amount of fruit we consume.
Medically, there have been people who have rarely consumed sweet or sugary drinks with high blood lipids, fatty liver, or weight loss failure, due to their excessive fruit intake and fructose intake.
Epidemiological studies have shown that high fructose intake is associated with independent risk factors for obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive decline.
Also, it is best to consume fruits after meals and avoid turning them into fruit juices. Some studies have shown that eating certain foods before eating fruit can activate the ability of the small intestine to metabolize fructose, which has a protective effect on the liver. However, the study emphasized that if we eat a lot of fruit (high doses of fructose) or drink fruit juice (the fructose release rate in the intestines is relatively high), it can still lead to fatty liver. Is.
Mistake 5: Preparing Protein
High-quality protein can be found in beans, fish, eggs and meat, in descending order of protein quality. White meat (such as poultry) is of higher quality than red meat (such as beef and pork), and the latter should be consumed no more than twice a week.
Whether it is plant-based protein or animal-based protein, we should avoid cooking it at high temperatures.
Some people enjoy eating fried and grilled fish, but this can nullify and spoil the health benefits of fish oil. In addition, the proteins in meat are easily denatured at high temperatures, and beans are also suspected of producing carcinogens after being processed at high temperatures.
Mistake 6: Consuming Starch
As the main food sources, whole grains and cereals, such as brown rice, germ rice, pearl barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, quinoa, wheat, barley and millet, are all familiar to us.
These grains provide various nutrients and starch to the body. Starch can be a source of energy for the body, but consuming too much starch can still lead to high blood sugar and high blood cholesterol.
However, there are many ingredients that look like vegetables but are actually whole grains, which can cause people to accidentally consume too much starch. Such foods include corn, taro, pumpkin, yams, lotus roots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, red beans, green beans, broad beans and chestnuts.
In addition, whole grains such as brown rice are high in phosphorus, so patients with chronic kidney disease who need to limit phosphorus should be mindful of the amounts they consume. Fortunately, plant-based sources of phosphorus are not completely absorbed by the body, and studies have shown that only 40 percent to 60 percent of the phosphorus in plant-based foods is absorbed.
